Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Baby Clothes

Pretty much everyone I know is having babies. Or has them. Or is about to have more. Anyways there are babies everywhere in my life right now and I am often buying presents for people with babies. This has turned out to be a problem.

I don’t know if you have noticed but the clothes available for babies and littlies are AWFUL. As one friend said, “If I see another onesie with yellow ducks or blue boats I will scream!” And they’re almost always pastel. I HATE PASTELS. Or white. Or grey. Grey? What are they? Little prisoners in a dystopia? (Maybe. Don’t answer that.) Then there’s the whole girl clothes are mostly pink and boy clothes mostly blue thing. SERIOUSLY? What century is this?

So I am begging you, my faithful readers, do you know of anywhere that sells bold coloured onesies/rompers/whatever you call those little suits for babies in your culture? Where do I find Goth baby clothes? Anarchist baby clothes? Surreal baby clothes? Fun baby clothes? Hip baby clothes? Cool baby clothes? NOT PASTEL baby clothes?

I will be eternally in your debt.

Thank you!

Posted by Justine at 8:04, 21 September 2012 under Fashion, Ranting, State of the World | 30 Comments »

Comments

  1. Lesley Says:

    Not sure if these come under the category of non-awful, but they’re…different. http://www.mummysonline.com/

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:08 AM

  2. Christopher Barzak Says:

    I like using fab.com to find cool stuff that is usually ordinary if you go to regular stores to buy stuff. Here are a couple of pages of their baby stuff (various small business stores sell on the site):

    http://fab.com/ushops/5/?csid=380

    http://fab.com/shops/181/

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:13 AM

  3. Jade Says:

    I’m a few weeks away from having my first baby, so I feel you. I actually really like the Bonds stuff. We got this really cool charcoal suit with a front pocket (like a hoodie), which is super cute. We also got some romper suits in cool colours/prints. They also have cute tights.

    Good luck!

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:16 AM

  4. Sarah Says:

    How about Threadless?
    http://www.threadless.com/catalog/type,babies

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:23 AM

  5. 5. Justine Says:

    Thanks so much for all the suggestions!

    Adding this one from Shannon Cotterell on twitter: http://www.punkbabyclothes.net

    This one in particular makes me so happy: zombie slayer suit

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:34 AM

  6. Bec Says:

    Ript.com is a daily shirt site (one design every 24hrs) that do pop culture/nerdy designs and they print onto onsies. The designs aren’t always appropriate for babies to be wearing, but that call is up to you. Shirtpunch.com are similar, I think they do onsies sometimes, but they definitely do kids sizes.

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:37 AM

  7. Steven Says:

    Here’s a Sydney (Australia) store which caters for the girls-must-wear-pink, boys-must-wear-blue group a well as normal people ;-)
    http://www.mymessyroom.com.au/

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:46 AM

  8. Brendan Says:

    Might be a bit on the pricey side but Cafe Press has a range ofbabywear. I did a search on Nerd baby clothes, which ended up being a subset of a subset of a subset of prints.

    I did like the WASD letter block design.

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:49 AM

  9. Laurel Says:

    Mega packs of nappies are always well received. Everyone gives you tiny clothes when you have a baby, and they grow out of them in about 5 minutes. But nappies are always needed.

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:53 AM

  10. Beth K Says:

    http://www.psychobabyonline.com/

    One of my favorites!

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:56 AM

  11. Danika Says:

    Try this for non-boring baby clothes (one of the onesies might have The Fonz on it):

    http://www.rockyourbaby.com/home

    September 21st, 2012 at 9:02 AM

  12. Danika Says:

    Oh, and also:

    Punk Baby
    http://shop.punkbabyclothing.com/SHOP-BY-GRAPHIC_c26.htm

    and Monster Baby
    http://www.monsterbaby.com.au/

    September 21st, 2012 at 9:03 AM

  13. Carol Says:

    Apple was once selling black onesies with original I-pod controls printed on the front….

    September 21st, 2012 at 9:20 AM

  14. Stacy K Says:

    Sick On Sin offers a lot of their t-shirt designs in child & infant sizes, the art is super-cute and hits a fun blend of goth/eco-friendly/vegan interests (including, yes, several pro-zombie designs): http://www.sickonsin.com/category.php?category_id=3&page=g

    September 21st, 2012 at 10:51 AM

  15. Emily G. Says:

    Hand-knit monster pants and Carl Sagan?

    September 21st, 2012 at 11:08 AM

  16. Kandace Mavrick Says:

    ThinkGeek: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/kids/
    has a bunch of geeky and gothy infant and kids clothes.

    September 21st, 2012 at 11:35 AM

  17. 17. Justine Says:

    I don’t know why I didn’t ask youse lot earlier. I’m an idiot. Thank you!

    September 21st, 2012 at 1:48 PM

  18. Tim Pratt Says:

    We got our son some cute ones from here:

    http://www.youngpunks.com/

    September 21st, 2012 at 1:49 PM

  19. Ada Says:

    While not exactly punk, I really like the strong colours of polarn o pyret.

    http://www.polarnopyretusa.com/

    September 21st, 2012 at 2:17 PM

  20. Jessica Says:

    Not a suggestion for a specific place, and you may already know this, but don’t get newborn or even 3-6 month sizes (unless they’re specifically asked for). Your friends are going to be getting plenty of those sizes and they only last a few months at most! Instead, go for 6-12 month, 12-18, or even 19-24. Then a year or two down the line, your bleary-eyed friends will pull them down at last and say a little prayer for you. :P

    September 21st, 2012 at 5:20 PM

  21. marrije Says:

    Or try Etsy.com for amazing hand-made stuff! Glad you don’t give your friends cuddly toys – they are very sweet, but as a young parent I DROWNED in them.

    September 21st, 2012 at 8:08 PM

  22. Lauren 'Scribe' Harris Says:

    When I was in Japan, I bought a jinbei for my state-side friend’s baby. They are the cutest things, and tons of bright colors and fun designs. A lot of Japanese shops have really fun, colorful baby clothes. :) Here are some jinbei I found online:

    http://www.shimazakura.com/Baby-jinbei-s/23.htm

    http://www.etsy.com/search?includes%5B%5D=tags&q=jinbei

    September 21st, 2012 at 11:18 PM

  23. Jenny Rae Rappaport Says:

    As the mother of a 14 month old girl, who I’m desperately trying not to dress in pink, this is of serious interest to me! I love the following companies:

    Tea Collection, Mini Boden, Gymboree (they’re one of the few that does some non-pink stuff for girls), H&M (has some non-pink stuff, but lower quality), and Janie and Jack (has gorgeous higher end baby and children’s clothes). Other moms I know adore places like Hanna Anderssen (sp?) or Gap. You have to search for them, but there are definitely cute, non-gender-stereotyping clothes out there.

    We are desperately trying to avoid the princess stage here. =)

    September 21st, 2012 at 11:32 PM

  24. Kaethe Says:

    I second marije on skipping the stuffies, and Jessica on sizing up. Board books are very welcome gifts, though. First time parents might well appreciate a disc of lullabies, too.

    And I am so wishing I’d thought to ask you lot when I had my first baby. Folks who knew of my loathing for pastels made a huge effort for which I am grateful, but these sites would have been a boon.

    September 21st, 2012 at 11:50 PM

  25. Tansy Rayner Roberts Says:

    There are often quite cool things, it just takes hunting it down. The Bonds range (and quite a lot of the Dymples range) are pretty good, colourwise, with plenty of primary colours, stripes and bold patterns.

    Actual baby shops are often quite awful and expensive, though they do occasionally do awesome things like pirate ranges of clothing.

    Also there is a current trend towards superhero clothes for babies and toddlers which means I can dress my 3 year old in Batman t-shirts, worth keeping an eye out for in Big W or Target (in Australia). On a similar line, you can often find handmade superhero capes for babies on Etsy, or Batman tutus.

    There are some very cute baby books riffing off famous works of literature http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/47832-baby-lit-debuts-shakespeare-and-austen-classics-from-gibbs-smith.html

    September 22nd, 2012 at 2:39 PM

  26. Jenna Rose Says:

    Offbeat Mama is a great go-to site for any and all non-boring, non-gender-binary parenting/baby stuff. They have many, many pages of delicious, offbeat baby clothes (both tagged under “kids-clothes”, and listed by vendor in the shopping category). Happy shopping!

    http://offbeatmama.com/tag/kids-clothes

    September 22nd, 2012 at 2:55 PM

  27. cristina Says:

    My best friend’s baby was born a month ago and this has been a good source of clothes for him.

    http://www.threadless.com/catalog/type,babies

    September 22nd, 2012 at 5:45 PM

  28. Ronni Says:

    As children (in the ’90s), my sister and I wore a lot of Hanna Andersson stuff. It’s good in that it’s quite timeless, extremely durable (seriously, I had a cardigan from there that I wore from the ages of six to twelve) and mainly in bold, bright colours. Barely any pastel, and not much gender-stereotypical-coloured clothing. (However, they seem to have added a lot of stereotypically ‘girly’ prints to the lineup. But the old classics are still there.)

    http://www.hannaandersson.com/home.asp

    September 22nd, 2012 at 10:25 PM

  29. Sarah Says:

    Thinkgeek.com have some baby stuff star trek onesies
    http://www.piratemod.com for pirate baby stuff

    September 23rd, 2012 at 10:57 PM

  30. Nif Says:

    I’m currently drooling over Mini Boden for my toddler. I think their t-shirt designs are funny, and I love that the baby section isn’t labeled by gender.

    We got our son plain bodysuits in a rainbow array of bright colors from ibabyspot.com. We were so happy to have something non-gendered, and plain stuff is great to wear under overalls and pjs.

    You might also try Zutano.

    September 25th, 2012 at 10:32 AM

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